The invention relates to a valve, in particular for a piston-type compressor, which is mounted in or on a housing, for example a cylinder head, and which is clamped tightly by means of at least one tension or clamping screw against a seating surface of the housing. A valve according to the invention comprises a valve seating with throughflow channels, a closure piece controlling the latter, a spring means urging the closure piece against the valve seating and an arrester for the closure piece, and at most one spacer or guide ring between the valve seating and the arrester.
Valves of this construction are known. They are pressed into the cylinder head from the cylinder side and are screwed tight and thus secured with the aid of a relatively long tension screw passing from the upper side of the cylinder head through to the valve seating. With a valve of this construction it is not readily possible, at least not without a special construction of the relatively long tension screw, to pre-assemble the valve parts on the premises of the manufacturer of the valves. Rather, it is necessary to deliver the valve parts, packed in sets, to the compressor manufacturer and to assemble them there using more or less complicated assembly aids, to press them into the cylinder head and finally, after removing the assembly aids, to clamp them tightly and to secure them by means of the tension screw.
In practice, during assembly it repeatedly happens that the valve parts are incorrectly assembled by assembly personnel who have not been specifically trained in the valve sector, or that individual valve parts, in particular the spring rings, are clamped between adjacent valve parts, for example between a spacer or a guide ring and the valve seating or the arrester. During assembly, the thin valve parts may slide into the separating gap between the adjacent valve parts without this being noticed by the assembly personnel. When the valve is tightly clamped they are clamped in there. This not only disturbs the proper operation of the valve but also causes undesirable breakages of valve parts. It is even possible for broken pieces to reach the cylinder and damage the compressor.
To remedy this, the attempt was made in the case of one valve construction to connect the guide ring and the buffer plate forming the arrester to one another before assembly of the valve, that is to say, either to produce them from one piece or to stick them together with adhesive. Both measures are relatively expensive, and moreover have not proved successful in practice. Breakages have occurred which have repeatedly led to complaints.